• I am a developmental psychologist who studies how children learn verbs between the ages of 2-5 years, both in the US and across cultures. With a team of dedicated undergraduates, we use behavioral enactment, video, and eye tracking procedures to test how children may use information they can discover by comparing multiple events to each other to learn new verbs.

    I teach courses that explore various key questions in development, including: How does human thought begin in infancy, and how does it develop?聽 How are children influenced by their parents, peers, and culture over development? and How do children learn language, and what does that tell us about human thought?

    I live in New Braunfels with my husband, Danny, and my daughter, Emily.听 I am the faculty adviser for RUF and the PDK sorority on campus.

    • Post-doctoral fellow, Emory University, 1998-2000
    • Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 1998
    • M.A., Developmental Psychology, minor in linguistics,聽University of Texas at Austin, 1994
    • B.A., Psychology, Baylor University, 1990
    • Howard, T. J.**, Porter, B. M.** & Childers, J. B. (in press). Can 2.5- to 5-year-olds ignore irrelevant events, or subevents, during verb learning?聽Journal of Cognition and Development.听doi:10.1080/15248372.2019.1607861
    • Childers, J. B., Paik, J. H. & Flores, M. **, Lai, G. & Dolan, M.** (2016)聽 Does variability across events affect verb learning in English, Mandarin and Korean?聽Cognitive Science,聽1-23. doi:10.1111/cogs.12398.
    • Childers, J. B. & Parrish, R.**, Olson (Velasquez), C.**, Fung, G., Burch, C.** & McIntyre, K.听 (2016). 聽Early Verb Learning: How do children learn how to compare events?聽Journal of Cognition and Development, 17(1),聽41-66.
    • Childers, J. B., Hirshkowitz, A.** & Benavides, K.**聽 (2014).听 Attention to Explicit and Implicit Contrast in Verb Learning.听聽Journal of Cognition and Development, 15(2),聽213-237.
    • National Institutes of Health, Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) Grant (R15) (8/2010-7/2013). "Verb learning: How does comparison develop?" $199,600. Jane B. Childers, principal investigator.
    • Cognitive Development
    • Social Development
    • FY and Senior Seminars: Various topics related to cognition and language
    • The Children's Research Lab provides child development information to local families.
    • Childers is chair of the Linguistics program at 性爱天堂.